Tobacco Firm Burned for Running Ad in Kids' App

Today in international tech news: A UK-based tobacco company apologizes after one of its ads ends up in a children's iPad app. Also: Google's competitors don't seem all that impressed with its most recent round of European antitrust remedies; a Brit is arrested for hacking into U.S. government computers; Obama's Twitter account gets hacked; and Apple had a good (relatively speaking) quarter in China.

By David Vranicar
Oct 29, 2013 11:00 AM PT

British American Tobacco issued an apology after an ad for its e-cigarette brand, Vype, popped up in an iPad app for children.

The Vype banner appeared inside the "My Dog My Style HD" game and was spotted by author and educator Graham Brown-Martin, who took to Twitter with a screenshot of the kiddy cig advertisement.

British American Tobacco, based in the UK, pulled its online advertising for Vype and issued an apology: "It's unacceptable and we're taking the issue seriously," it said.

The snafu was likely caused not by British American Tobacco targeting kids, but rather by a mixup (or downright negligence) with an advertising network tasked with placing the company's ads.

Google has reportedly offered to let competitors display their logos on Google result pages as part of its new strategy. However, FairSearch, a group of companies led by Microsoft, has said that such concessions are too similar to the ones that have already been rejected.

Google currently controls more than 90 percent of the search market in Europe -- it's about 70 percent in the U.S. -- which is probably part of the reason other companies are so prickly about this.

Joaquín Almunia, the European Union's Competition Commissioner, said he wants a final settlement reached by the spring. Then again, the EU gave Google a January 2013
deadline
last year, and look what good that's done.

Obama's Twitter Account Hacked

The pro-Assad Syrian Electronic Army hacker group claims to have wormed its way into President Obama's official Twitter and Facebook accounts.

That claim jells with what happened to Obama's Twitter account, which on Monday linked to a YouTube video from the Electronic Army. Obama's reelection site, donate.barackobama.com, was also infiltrated, as users were redirected to the Syrian Electronic Army site.

The Syrian Electronic Army has also taken credit for hacks carried out against CNN, Time and other media outlets.